This invention relates to retrieval and storage apparatus for balls and is primarily directed to an apparatus for retrieving and storing a plurality of game balls such as tennis balls, from a tennis court or playing field.
The game of tennis is generally taught by an instructor delivering tennis balls to a student upon a tennis court playing surface so that the student may continually hit the ball and develop the proper strokes. Machines are available for pitching the balls to the student so that the instructor may be freed for assisting the student in improving his stroke. Hundreds of tennis balls may be loaded into such machines so that the student can continue practicing for an extended period of time. Of course, after the balls have been hit by the student, they must be retrieved from the court playing surface.
The retrieval of such practice balls generally has been manual and has been performed in the same manner as the retrieval of individual tennis balls during a tennis match. Accordingly, the retrieval of several hundred tennis balls, which may be used during an instruction period, becomes a time consuming and difficult procedure.
Apparatus has been developed for simplifying the tennis ball retrieval procedure. Generally, the apparatus is a rectangular metal frame structure defining a central storage area with a grate formed over a bottom entrance. The spaces defined by the grate structure are each slightly smaller than the diameter of the tennis ball. As the tennis balls are resilient, they may be squeezed through the entry spaces for storage in the central storage area. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,371,950 for such a retriever device.
In using this prior device, if the tennis ball is not correctly aligned with an entry space in the grate, the ball may be deflected so that the player would have to chase the ball to a remote location in order to use the device again. The lack of any means for keeping the tennis balls generally in the confines of the entry spaces and for guiding the balls into proper alignment for passage through the entry spaces is a problem which has not been solved by prior art devices.
Prior art devices have had their entry spaces for balls flush with the court surface thereby permitting stored balls to contact said surface while the device is resting vertically on the surface. Such surface contact by the balls next adjacent the entry spaces can adversely affect the resiliency or lively condition thereof.